My red Huffy bike

On this day, the weather is serene. Wind calm. Sky clear. The temperature is at an ideal summer warmth and I am pedaling fast on my red Huffy bike. It’s just a generic bike that I had picked up at a lawn sale that would give me some good exercise.

On this day, it gives me so much more value.

You see, I am in a rush of the speed and fun that come with a ride, but also, an annoyance grows from physical discomfort and fatigue. My body is growing wary, but mentally I tell myself to push harder and it will just go away. It works momentarily until the annoyance becomes agitation, and then ultimately, I am frustrated.

Something inside of me tells me to stop. It is a deep inner wish that I usually suppress until completely finished.

“I want to make it all the way without having to stop,” I whisper to myself, but I resist that urge and listen to my wishes.

As I stop, and there is no true way to describe this, but I feel a rush just catch up to me. It’s as if all the momentum of energy from the ride had come from behind and hit me like a refreshing ocean wave. The feeling is refreshing and the next few breaths feel divine.

“This is what exercise is all about,” I say aloud to the voice that just whispered moments ago.

Miles from home and surrounded by the vast network of back country roads, the wisdom from this bike ride is filling up my intuition. All along I was just trying to catch up with myself by going faster, yet all I needed to do was stop and take a breather.

We think that what we have behind us will come and knock us over like a tsunami. So it comes from fear that we attempt to go even faster to escape from the past because we are afraid of the fall. Yet, the only fall that comes is from the crash of speeding too far ahead. If we were to just stop and take a step back, we all would certainly gain worthiness from the perspective that settles us into a brief moment of solitude.

It is the essence of a thing that we pursue more so than the thing itself. From this, the essence teaches us authentic expression from deeper attunement and fresh perspective, to which, is always renewed with each breathing moment.

On this day, as I sit in the pause, sun shining, the wave of inspiration comes and then goes. Where to I do not know. I simply get back on my red Huffy bike and search again until it is ready to catch back up to me. But now, I truly have the strength.